Having seen the movie, the said decapitations are COOL and have the best sound ever totally unique. It was actually funny. When Alphie wrote her review, she wanted to include the word decapitations and dismemberment, but Summit asked us not to for fear MPAA would look at it again. The euphemism Alphie used instead was “characters die on screen exactly how described in book”. Looks like they aren’t concerned about a relook at rating now :

“Was directing a PG-13 Twilight film such a major change for Slade, whose previous features earned R-ratings for “disturbing violent behavior” (Hard Candy) and good old-fashioned bloody vampire violence (30 Days of Night)? What skin-ripping scenes in Eclipse were too extreme for the MPAA? How did he get Taylor Lautner to wear a skin-tight gray spandex wolf suit on set? And lastly, what message does he have for hardcore horror hounds reluctant to give his Twilight movie a chance?

Was there a discernable transition making the jump from your earlier, R-rated genre work to the Twilight franchise?

It wasn’t that hard. We have like six decapitations in Eclipse! We smash people’s heads off, bite people’s heads off, I mean — I was amazed we got the rating we did, the MPAA only threw back one thing: we had this one part in the battle where Emmett just tears someone’s face off. The face kind of breaks off into pieces of crystal that shatter. I was like, ‘Whoa, yeah!’ But the MPAA said ‘No, you can’t do that.’ So the shot’s still in there, but you don’t see the face come off, you just see little bits of stuff breaking off.

Transcribed by Shock Til You Drop. Here are the thoughts of director, David Slade, producer, Wyck Godfrey, and writer, Melissa Rosenberg at the Eclipse Press Conference roundtable.

“Q: What did you do to prepare for Eclipse and how did you bring your own style to the film?
Slade: There’s a vocabulary, a cinematic vocabulary to each of the films they’ve done. And it doesn’t come from that much premeditation. It comes from two things. One, seeing the film in my head before we go out and make it, and being very clear about that and planning it. Two, [doing] what’s right for the scene and the character. I believe the most interesting thing to look at in the world is the human face, so that is why I tend to be a little closer to human faces than maybe other directors will be.
Wyck Godfrey: When you were first talking to us about the movie, you had said that by letting the background fall out of focus and really focus on the characters in the dangerous scenes it creates a heightened sense of anxiety. You feel like you don’t really know what’s back there, and in the romantic scenes it creates an incredible sense of intimacy. You really feel like you sense these two people in that world and I really think that was effective.

Read more on Shock Till You Drop, and before anyone has a total fit he’s kidding about the nude scene. It’s that dry British humor just like with Jamie Campbell Bowers’ nude scene joke from last year!

I want to congratulate you for reaching over 6 million fans on The Twilight Saga Facebook page.

It’s hard to fathom that it was just over one year ago that I started constructing this third and epic adventure which takes place in the town of Forks.

I want to share a story about one of our days of shooting with you.

It was a Friday night and the rain was relentless. We were at La Push to shoot the tribe’s histories, a great speech by Billy Black. We had Taylor and Kristen and the whole wolf pack around a campfire as the heavens let loose on us.

Gil Birmingham was in fine form as the rain hammered down on us all, we adjusted our lights so that the rain vanished into the black of night.

We constructed a tent over the scene to keep everyone dry as we worked, every 15 minutes or so we would have to tip it to stop the collecting rain from splitting the fabric.

For some reason still unknown, around 3am, the wolf pack stood exactly in the way of several gallons of rainwater as it was being cleared. Being the wolf pack, they just laughed it off as they stood there soaked to the bone.

We worked through the mud and the rain all night, until we had the scene perfected.

As we left, dawn was now cracking and in the dim light I passed a small army of fans who had braved the weather for the entire night, still standing there, holding drenched flowers and waiting to get a glimpse of our actors.

So, to those of you who stood behind our security, who waited in line at theatres overnight, to those of you who just love these stories, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is a love letter to you.

Each day I felt the weight of your favourite scenes, your favourite lines, your dreams and your imagination.

It has been an unforgettable journey, and now as I finalise the last prints to ready the film for your local theaters, I cannot wait for you to see it.

Earth’s Mightiest, who recently interviewed producer Wyck Godfrey, talked to David Slade about his work on Eclipse.

“30 Days of Night director David Slade has turned his directorial eye towards The Twilight Saga with this month’s Eclipse. In this exclusive interview he discloses his reasons for joining the franchise and reveals what he is intending to bring to it.”